The inaugural Pat Franklin Courageous Spirit Award was a split decision, with one of the awards going to Marge Davis, president of Scenic Tennessee and CRI’s treasurer since 2008.

Marge, a conservation writer who grew up in Maine, had been working for the Maine Audubon Society in 1978 when opponents launched a multi-million-dollar effort to repeal Maine’s recently enacted container-deposit law. Maine Audubon led the campaign to save the bill, and in 1979, in one of the largest turnouts in the state’s referendum history, Maine's voters upheld their “bottle bill” by a staggering 84 percent.

Marge moved to Nashville that same year, and soon got involved in Tennessee's early efforts to pass container deposit legislation. Though those fledgling efforts failed, she continued her environmental advocacy while completing a Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University, writing for an assortment of conservation publications and publishing a comprehensive history of conservation in Tennessee called Sportsmen United. In 2004, appalled by the excessive amounts of litter she saw up close during daily walks with her new dog, she persuaded her fellow board members at Scenic Tennessee to renew the quest for a Tennessee deposit-return law. The Tennessee Bottle Bill Project concluded in 2021 in order to rally behind a much larger campaign, led by the Tennessee Wildlife Federation, called the Tennessee CLEAN Act.

Tex Corley, founder and former CEO of Houston-based glass recycling giant Strategic Materials, Inc., had been a financial supporter of the Container Recycling Institute almost from the start, but his involvement rose to another level after Pat Franklin convinced him to join the board in the late 1990s. "At first I tried to give her more money in hopes she’d go away,” Tex wrote in an affectionate tribute to Pat following her untimely death in 2012. "In the end she won. Pat had bulldog determination and no idea that what she was trying to accomplish was damn near impossible.” Tex was one of the very first businessmen to put his and his company's reputation publicly behind CRI, and his example encouraged and reassured other members of the manufacturing and processing industries who continue to be an essential part of CRI’s management, credibility and influence. Over the ensuing years Tex became as tenacious an advocate as Pat Franklin herself—hounding his business associates to get involved, sitting down with congressmen and legislators who believed in deposit-return programs while standing up to beverage lobbyists who didn’t, and eventually spending ten years—2008 to 2018—as chairman of the board. Though Tex is now retired to hunt with his beloved Brittany spaniels, he remains a steadfast friend and invaluable advisor to the organization he helped transform.

Few volunteers have put in more hours nor logged more miles in pursuit of a clean environment than 78-year-old John W. “Jack” Coughlin, Jr., of Agawam, Massachusetts. An outdoorsman and litter activist since his youth and a community leader during his working years, Jack in retirement went out virtually every day with his “nifty nabber” to clean up the streets, parks and shorelines of Agawam and the larger community. In addition to picking up trash, educating young people about the impact of their actions on the environment and spearheading community projects, including the long-overdue renovation of a popular boat launch on the Connecticut River, Jack pushed relentlessly for legislators to modernize Massachusetts 40-year-old deposit law, including expanding the deposit to cover the miniature liquor bottles known as “nips.” Tragically, Jack was struck by a car while on his daily litter rounds in January 2021, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. His story sparked an outpouring of appreciation and commemorations, including renaming the 2021 “nips bill” in his honor. In March, despite Jack’s prolonged stay in the hospital and continued COVID-19 restrictions, Jack received the 2021 Pat Franklin Courageous Spirit Award in a virtual tribute presentation featuring CRI’s president and board chair and seven of Jack’s fellow citizens, including city leadership, the Senate and House sponsors of “Jack’s Bill” and representatives of several organizations. In the words of his friend and Agawam mayor William Sapelli, Jack Coughlin had “singlehandedly changed not only the mindset but the landscape of our town.” You can view the video below and you can help Jack’s family bring him home on this GoFundMe page.

Update: Unfortunately, Jack succumbed to his injuries on April 17th, 2021. His death is a great loss to his friends, family, and the environmental community. In his name, thousands of people have signed petitions encouraging a deposit to be placed on nips in Massachusetts. Read more about these efforts here.